This Old Friend

Architect and ELLE editor BFFs turn a stale box into a country haven

Here are some details I'm just a stickler about," says architect Stacey Jacovini. "When you slam a door, it should sound and feel like a door slamming."

This is the sort of comment that anyone who has dealt with contractor corner-cutting thrills to hear. Now imagine it coming from your best friend, who has promised to guide you through reno hell.

After being outbid on two houses in a row, ELLE editor-at-large Rachael Combe and her husband, Orlando Knauss, an investment banker at Credit Suisse, found a country house in Sharon, Connecticut, about which they had a gut feeling. As in, this place needs a gut redo but it's two hours from our Upper East Side apartment and it's a total steal.

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"We called it the turd on the hill," Combe says. Although it's set on 10 acres with a pond, a brook, direct views over Macedonia Brook State Park, and neighbors like Oscar de la Renta, the primarily orange and brown (inside and out) '70s house was cave dark, with, mysteriously, few view-facing windows. That, plus a mild, pervasive animal-urine scent, had scared off other buyers. But other buyers didn't have Combe's secret weapon: Jacovini, principal of Ascape architecture in NYC, known for her warm reductionist approach to projects for clients such as Cynthia Rowley and the photography agency Art Partner.

"I've known her since we both had the same first class, Logic and Rhetoric, at Columbia University 17 years ago," Combe says. "Stacey and her older sister, a fashion stylist, were always the ones who knew exactly how things should look. I already trusted her."

Jacovini gave her the A-OK before they closed. "It had potential, the way it sat there modestly, and then the land drops down around it and it becomes part of something bigger. I could see it just needed to be opened up to the view, cleaned out, and reorganized."

It was literally cleaned out: The insulation was replaced, thus evicting furry creatures that had made it smell. But a major reorientation and a debrowning were what completely exorcized the suburban-porn-movie feel.

Jacovini moved the kitchen from the building's front, where it faced the gravel driveway, to occupy the garage's space looking south for miles over the nature preserve. Without adding to the original footprint, they created a second story above the kitchen for offices, with soaring windows in the stairwell. The old kitchen space's darkness became an advantage when it was turned into a cozy library.

The open living room still connects the four-bed/bath sleeping wing to the kitchen, but painting the wood ceiling and aggressive (yes, it's really called that) red hearth brick bright white and adding new decks and 20-plus new windows made the space unrecognizable. Jacovini insisted they splurge on details like solid-core wood doors with tricky quarter-inch reveals around the frames, evoking sturdy modernism instead of el-cheapo new construction.

"Everyone said I was crazy to work with my best friend, but we never fought," Combe says. "I knew, from years of hearing her complain when clients treated her like she was the plumber, what the architect's role is." In return, Jacovini's intimate knowledge of Combe's family made the design process easy. "Orlando and I fight about watching sports, so she put the TV room in a dark corner in the back; she knew I would want it shut away, and Orlando would too." (Though it's in hollering distance of the kitchen.) Other things they didn't have to explain that just happened: a master bath that has a doored-off toilet ("We're not loosey-goosey"), a serious cook's kitchen, and room for extended family and dinner parties.

"It's a little surreal," Combe says about creating this beautiful, very grown-up thing with the friend she used to drink beers and pull all-nighters with. When Jacovini is up visiting the house, Combe describes suddenly looking at her husband and baby and thinking, "Where did they come from? Who are these interlopers?!"

DEEP FIXESMove the kitchen...
...or boldly rethink its layout. Even confirmed bachelorettes end up lolling around in this room the most, so it's worth making sure it has great light and comfortable seating.

Add bathrooms
Pricey, but it does the trick when it's time to sell—and you might as well enjoy them while you live in the house rather than making them for strangers.

Reveal the lines
A quarter-inch reveal means there is a slight indent between the door trim and the wall. It's a small, expensive detail with hugely elegant effect.

SURFACE TRICKSSplurge Small
Combe used Josef Frank's Aralia fabric to cover seat cushions for her banquette and a hall bench. The smallest hint of a beautiful textile can lift spirits and draw the eye away from flaws. Svenskttenn.se

Pick favorites
In a sea of rough choices, Combe found calm at Jonathan Adler and Conran's, but the house still looks very her. jonathanadler.com, conran.com

Personalize
Combe customized vintage iron furniture from local shop R.T. Facts by powder-coating a garden set acid yellow and perching a stainless steel top on a blue spray-painted pedestal.